


straight boy flustered

by stefonzolesky



Category: Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
Genre: High School AU, M/M, mckinley is a jock and this is solely for me to push my jock mckinley agenda, no hate to fdoc but jesus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 07:42:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16719208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stefonzolesky/pseuds/stefonzolesky
Summary: “Are you and Katie--...” Ben frowns. For some reason the idea of Katie and McKinley being an item makes his skin crawl.





	straight boy flustered

Cute boys at Firewood High aren’t an unnatural phenomenon. McKinley tends to not give them a second thought until they approach him. 

Finding a cute boy pacing and mumbling to himself outside of the Firewood theater, on the other hand, isn’t something that happens every day.

He stops in his tracks.

“Ben, right?”

The boy -- Ben -- looks up. “Hm? Yeah.”

McKinley nods, holding out a hand for him to shake. “McKinley,” He says, offering up a smile as Ben hesitantly shakes his hand. “We have Lit together, I think.”

“Right!” Ben straightens out his back a little bit. “I remember you. You’re the guy who got mad at the teacher for trying to make you read your poetry out loud last week and got detention.”

McKinley can’t help but laugh. “That was only my tenth detention of the year. Glad I made a lasting impression. Sorry for just, like, talking to you out of the blue like this.” He brushes his hair from his eyes. “I kind of couldn’t help but notice that you were kind of sulking.”

“Right.” Ben laughs awkwardly. “Yeah, uh, my girlfriend is in there auditioning right now. I wanted to audition too, but she suggested I join the football team --  _ whatever,  _ she knows full well that I don’t play sports -- she just thinks I’ll steal her spotlight.”

McKinley’s eyebrows furrow. “It’s got romantic leads, right?” He doesn’t know the in’s and out’s of this year’s school musical, but Katie has been talking about auditioning to try and goade Andy into auditioning across from her as an excuse to make out in front of the school. “Why wouldn’t she want to star across from you?”

“Susie…” Ben sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “She wants to be the  _ lead _ lead. You know. The main role. The part for the girl has significantly less lines, so she’s auditioning for the male lead. She and I would be competing for the part, and she won’t admit that she thinks I’ll beat her out.”

“Well, if it’s any condolence, I’m sure you would.” McKinley smiles. “Anyway, why not audition for a smaller role? If Susie -- Susie, right? -- if Susie is worried you’ll steal her spotlight, go for the second role. You know, the guy who is getting married in the first place, or whatever. Tell Beth that you don’t want the lead role. She’s nice enough.”

“You know a lot about this musical,” Ben observes.

McKinley shrugs. “My friend, Katie, she’s been talking about it a lot. I’ve gathered the general plot.”

“You should audition,” Ben offers up, and McKinley frowns.

“Maybe I should.”

 

+   
  


The look on Susie’s face when he walks into the theater, Ben thinks, is priceless. She’s sitting next to a girl with long brown hair staring down a script, and Susie is frowning hard when she notices Ben. 

“Excuse me,” She quietly tells Beth, “I’ll be right back. Katie can go before me.”

Katie glances up for half a second and then back down at her script, and Ben is suddenly pushed back through the swinging doors of the theater.

“What are you  _ doing?”  _ Susie hisses with gritted teeth. “I told you not to audition!”

“I’m auditioning for a side role,” Ben tries to calmly explain. “I get that you don’t want me to audition for the lead, because  _ you _ want the lead, but  _ I _ wanna be in the musical.”

Susie goes from betrayed to defeated in half a second.

“Oh,” She says. “That's fine, I guess.”  

Ben lamely pumps his fist and is immediately embarrassed by it. Susie returns to her seat next to Katie, who is just now getting up to audition. Suddenly overcome by nerves, Ben takes Katie’s seat and whispers, “Can I borrow your monologue book?”

Susie wordlessly hands over the book, eyes trained on the girl auditioning. Ben flips through to find a monologue from Macbeth and pinches the bridge of his nose in hopes that it will diminish the chances of his oncoming anxiety headache.

 

+

 

Katie spends lunch gushing to Andy about how fun auditions were, arm hooked around him and pressed to his side as tightly as humanly possible. Andy is clearly not paying attention, but McKinley is hanging on her every word once she starts talking about Ben.

“That Ben kid,” She says, “said right off the bat that he didn’t want the main role. I think Susie’s gonna get it. Andy, you know I’m gonna have to kiss Susie if I get the main role, right? Does that bother you, Andy? Does it?”

Andy scoffs and says, “Hot. I’m not coming to the show.”

Katie frowns.

“I’ll be there,” McKinley pipes up, in hopes to keep her from going off about Andy being a shitty boyfriend on their daily walk from school back home -- Katie and McKinley have been best friends since sixth grade, and as much as he loves her, he can’t  _ stand _ to hear her complain about Andy every day of his life. “I’m not huge on theater but -- is it too late to audition?”

Katie blinks. “Uh, I think so, but not a lot of people auditioned, so maybe if you talk to Beth…”

“Great,” McKinley says.

Gary snorts next to him from where he’s staring down his lunch tray. “Fag.”

McKinley rolls his eyes with a forced laugh and says, “Whatever, Gary. I dunno. It could be fun. Whatever.”

Is he considering auditioning to act alongside Ben? Maybe. But that’s besides the point -- Katie needs her support system, even if she doesn’t know it. Or, that’s what he’s telling himself.

 

+

 

Ben thinks that his audition went as well as it could have, considering he crammed for his monologue and announced a little too loudly that he did  _ not _ want the lead role. He could have sworn that someone offstage gasped.

“I think your audition went well, today,” Susie tells him as she starts up her car. “I think you’ll get a part.”

“Everyone who auditioned gets a part, Suse,” Ben mutters, eyes trained on where his hands are folded in his lap. “It’s more whether or not I get a good part.”

Susie scoffs and rolls her eyes -- so much for being a caring girlfriend -- and starts to pull out of the school parking lot.

“Hey, you know that kid McKinley?” Ben can’t help but ask. McKinley has all but left his mind since they talked that morning.

“Hm?” Susie’s eyes flit off the road for half a second. “He’s friends with Katie Finnerty, right? She’s cool, he must be cool to hang out around her.”

Ben makes a quiet ‘huh’ noise and frowns, biting down on his lip. “I told him he should audition.”

Susie almost slams on her brakes and whips her head around to face Ben. “Really? What did he say?”

“He -- uh, he…” Ben frowns. “I think he said that he might.”

Susie barks out a laugh.

“Really?” She asks. “He said that? He’s not going to. I know he won’t. He’s, like, a jock.”

“Oh,” Ben mumbles. He frowns. “Shouldn’t you be driving me home right now?”

 

+

 

After-school track is a privilege McKinley is glad he has. Katie stays after for yearbook on the same day -- Wednesdays -- so he’s able to still walk her home per request of her parents who are afraid she’ll be abducted if she walks on her own.

“Victor,” McKinley hisses through gritted teeth, jogging faster during warm-ups to catch up with the other boy. “Victor!”

“Hm?” Victor glances over his shoulder, slowing down a little to match McKinley’s pace. “What’s up?”

“I was thinking of auditioning for the musical,” McKinley admits.

Victor’s eyebrows furrow. “Really? You don’t seem like the type.”

McKinley can’t help but laugh at that. “What exactly is the type, then?”

Victor slows down a little more, because apparently he has to think about that.

“Gay?”

McKinley rolls his eyes and speeds up. He should have known better than to ask Victor. He’ll audition, of course he’ll audition. Another extracurricular won’t hurt.

 

+

 

“Ben!” 

Ben turns around in the hallway, books clutched tight against his chest. Susie keeps walking, she doesn’t seem to notice that he’s stopped.

“Ben!” McKinley repeats, jogging up to him. “Hey.”

Ben’s stomach flips. “Hey.”

“Hey,” McKinley repeats. “Listen, I talked to Beth yesterday. She’s gonna give me a role in the musical.”

Ben smiles. “That’s great. I’m, uh. I’m looking forward to acting with you.”

McKinley laughs and brushes his hair out of his face. “Yeah. I’ve never really done theater, but I think it’s gonna be fun. Katie says it will be, at least, and I trust her.”

“Are you and Katie--...” Ben frowns. For some reason the idea of Katie and McKinley being an item makes his skin crawl.

“-- dating?” McKinley picks up what he’s saying immediately. “No, no, never. We’ve been best friends since we were kids, she’s like my sister. Plus, she’s dating Andy Fleckner, so even if I  _ was _ interested in her -- which would  _ never  _ happen, not in a million years -- she’d turn me down in a heartbeat.”

“Yeah.” Ben nods. “I think that anyone would turn someone down over Andy.” -- except he doesn’t really believe that, and if McKinley  _ were _ into Katie, Ben can’t fathom how she’d be able to say no to him.

“Anyway,” He coughs. “I have to go catch up with Susie.”

“Right,” McKinley says. “I’ll see you around?”

Ben grins. “Definitely.”

 

+

 

In all honesty, McKinley doesn’t know what the fuck is wrong with him.

On the way home from school on Friday, he spills to Katie.

“You’ve got a  _ crush,”  _ She teases him, whistling quietly. McKinley slugs her lightly in the shoulder.

“Shut up,” He says. “He thought we were dating, you know. Obviously I don’t give off enough of a gay vibe.”

“That’s true,” Katie agrees. “That’s really very true. I think the fact that you asked Beth if you could be in the musical just because he said you should is probably enough, though.”

“Whatever.” McKinley rolls his eyes. “You better not tell anyone, alright?”

“Who am I gonna tell? My dad? Andy? No, that’ll get you killed, and we wouldn’t want that.”

“Gee, thanks.” McKinley scoffs. “Good to know that once I come out, Andy and your dad are going to join forces and kill me. Totally looking forward to it.”

“I mean, metaphorically,” Katie explains. “Whatever. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your crush on Ben the straight boy.”

McKinley laughs. “Please, he’s not straight.”

“He’s dating Susie,” Katie reminds him.

“He’s not straight, Katie, I promise you.”

“Prove it.”

McKinley thinks on that for a minute. The school year is halfway over, and he’s about ninety percent sure he  _ could _ prove it by June.

“Alright,” He says. “Give me the rest of the school year and I will.”


End file.
